Taroko: Regorged

I don't like going backwards. When I was in Egypt, returning to Cairo for a single night to catch a flight was enough to give me recurring nightmares about accidentally finding myself back in that crazy city, and I've had even worse dreams about realising I'm back in the UK.

But this week, faced with the choice of heading back up north on the efficient high-speed railways of Taiwan's industrialised, little-explored west coast or trundling my way back through the familiar mountains of the east, I gave myself permission to retrace my steps.

I've got four more weeks to kill after all, and one day at Taroko Gorge really wasn't enough.

Formosa

This was the best day I've had for ages, I should head outdoors more often. In fact, let's all move out of the dirty, congested cities into the beautiful countryside. We'll have to bring the factories, cars and 7-Elevens with us, obviously, but I can't see any problems in my flawless plan.

East Taiwan is fantastic by the way.